Above the Rubble
by wild-springflower
Summary: The crew of the Enterprise sat poised, unable to shake the feeling that they should be doing something, yet unable to tear their eyes away from the screen. The screen showing McCoy and Kirk, trapped, buried, unsure of their own fate and unaware the world was watching.
1. I

**A/N: Well hello internet! I am, in fact, still alive. So this is a companion piece to my story Beneath the Rubble. It basically goes side-by-side with that one except this one is from the perspective of the crew. I don't even know if there is still interest in this, but I wrote it, so I'm gonna post it. I have two chapters done now and I am working on getting the rest out in a timely fashion! We'll see how that goes!**

Spock awoke from his slumber suddenly, the high-pitched chirp of his communicator rousing him. As a Vulcan he required far less sleep than his human shipmates, but he was still less than pleased when the few hours he did require were interrupted.

Especially after what had happened. Spock needed all the time to rest and meditate that he was given because he had felt himself crack that day. He'd watched as the life left Jim Kirk's eyes and something inside him had snapped, something that he wasn't fully in control of. He'd feel it sometimes, after going extended periods of time without a break; a bubbling, burning sensation in the pit of his stomach threatening to claw its way up his throat and escape in the form of a primal shout.

Spock swept a hand across his bedside counter gracefully and answered the call. His internal clock told him it was just past 0700 hours, he knew whoever was calling was doing so for an important reason.

"Spock, it's Nyota." The woman spoke, as if he was unable to recognize the sound of her voice. "You need to get downtown right away, there was a building collapse."

"Understood Nyota, has the Captain been informed?"

A pause from the other line, then, "I haven't been able to get through to him."

Spock could hear the tinge of worry in her voice, knew how deeply Uhura cared for the Captain even though she did her best not to show it. "I am certain he is just fine, sleeping soundly perhaps. He'd had a trying few weeks."

There was a sigh from the other end of the line and Spock could imagine the way her ponytail bounced as she nodded warily. "Yeah, yeah he has. Well, I'll keep trying, how soon do you think you'll be down here?"

"Approximately 1.23 hours." Spock responded, immediately calculating the time it would take him to dress, get ready, hail a taxi, and arrive downtown.

"Make it one." Uhura commanded, and in any other situation, with any other crew, it would have been deemed disrespectful.

"Understood." Was Spock's curt answer, before he hung up and quickly dressed in his 'Fleet issued plain blacks. It appeared as though it was going to be another long day.


	2. II

Uhura had become increasingly more agitated in the fifty-six minutes it took for Spock to arrive. Neither McCoy nor Kirk were answering their comms. Kirk sleeping through it she could see, especially because he hadn't been released from the hospital all that long ago and although he tried to hide it, the whole crew could tell he was exhausted.

But McCoy, Uhura knew he wouldn't ignore her calls, or be so careless as to let his communicator die. She didn't want to jump to conclusions, but she couldn't help the nervous knots her insides here being tied into.

When she saw Spock enter she allowed herself a small sigh of relief. She was a perfectly competent leader, she was just happy to have someone to lean against. The pressure was no longer resting solely on her shoulders.

"Spock." She called.

Before he'd even come to a full stop he was making inquiries, not even bothering with a greeting. "Have there been any new developments?"

The Communications officer knew what he was truly asking about immediately, but she had to keep an air of professionalism about the situation. "We've been able to locate and rescue a handful of the people who were near the doors of the building, but we're still waiting on search and rescue to figure out how many are trapped."

Spock nodded once, the corners of his mouth twitching downward ever so slightly. "Any word on the Captain or Doctor yet?"

Uhura shook her head, her lips tightening into a thing line, "Not yet. I'm starting to get worried. Spock, what if something happened?"

"Nyota, if Jim's health had declined drastically Doctor McCoy would have made us aware."

Uhura nodded with a controlled breath, glad that Spock still understood her so well even though they were no longer dating.

"Uhura!" Sulu called urgently from across the tent they'd set up as their emergency base. "We found someone, she's getting pulled out right now."

Uhura dashed through the flapping doors of the tent and into the first rays of the rising sun without a second thought, Spock hot on her heels. "How is she?"

"Conscious and talking, but she doesn't know for sure what happened."

"I want to talk to her before she heads to the hospital."

The woman was young, her clothes tattered and her hair in a huge poofy mess. She seemed to be rambling and confused, "My shoe, I'm missing my shoe. I had both when I left this morning, didn't I?"

As Uhura rounded the team supporting the woman she saw a light blue colored liquid seeping from a nasty cut on her head, which explained the rambling. "Miss, my name is Nyota Uhura, I work on the _USS Enterprise_ , do you remember anything from before the building collapse?"

The woman's large onyx eyes centered on Uhura's face, "Building?"

"Yes, the building you were just pulled from, can you remember anything about how it collapsed?"

"There was, some sort of rumbling, deep in the ground. And a- a pop? The walls were shaking. Then everything was gone!"

The medic glanced up at her apologetically, "We have to take her." He said, his voice serious.

Uhura stepped back with a nod, "Of course, thank you."

As the lady was carted away Uhura turned to Spock and Sulu. "What are we thinking?"

Sulu gave a shrug, "It could have been some sort of weapon."

"An attack right now would be logical as the city is significantly weakened by the crash of the _Vengeance_."

Uhura allowed the weight of the possibility to fall on her for just a minute. A single minute where her eyes fell shut and her heart hammered with fear before she released a level breath and snapped her eyes back open, determination burning within them. "Alright." She nodded, "Alright."


	3. III

Spock traced Uhura's movements as the Communications officer paced back and forth their make-shift command center, unanswered communicator still in hand. She was trying, unsuccessfully, to once again raise either the Captain or Doctor.

"You should talk to her." Sulu stated quietly. "She's been here basically since the building first collapsed and I don't think she's stopped to breathe once."

Spock's eyebrows furrowed, "Surely she must be breathing Mr. Sulu-"

"I meant she's been tense, on edge." Sulu quickly cut the Vulcan off. "Maybe you could talk to her?"

"I do not see how my words would be of benefit to her."

The young Pilot paused, "Well you guys are dating, aren't you?"

Spock released a terse sigh, "Actually Nyota and I have parted ways. Our relationship is now nothing more than that of two close friends."

Something akin to surprise flashed through Sulu's eyes. "Oh. Well still, you relax her, that much is obvious. Just try to calm her down?"

Before Spock could reply Sulu had run back into the fray, meeting up with Scotty and beginning a tense conversation with the Engineer.

Spock's attention was drawn back to Nyota as she released a low curse and slammed her communicator closed.

"I still can't get through to either of them!"

"Nyota, perhaps if you would take a seat."

"I don't need a seat Spock, I need to get in contact with Jim. Or Leonard, so _he_ can get in contact with Jim. We need them here."

"I am certain we will locate them." Spock said calmly, doing his best to sooth her.

Uhura shook her head and stalked over to the table with pads containing anything from blueprints to a muted news channel. "I'm just relieved it was early enough that not many people were in there."

"Nyota, may I at least offer you some water?"

"Spock, we have other priorities right now! If this was a deliberate attack this could just be the beginning!" Finally her wide eyes, filled with worry and rage, met his.

They stood there for a moment, held in the depth of one another's eyes before Sulu and Chekov came darting in.

The young Russian was shouting something about a pad but Uhura missed the first part. "What?" She demanded, worry leaching into her voice causing the slightest tremor.

"Do you have the news?" Sulu huffed, breathless.

"It's on one of these pads, why?"

"Turn it on!" Chekov shouted by way of explanation.

Spock had already gripped the pad and placed the device in the middle of the table, so they could all see.

At first Uhura couldn't tell what she was looking at; the image was dark and grainy. But as she stared at it more, she realized what the image was. "Oh my god, this is the building." She breathed.

"The image just took over all the news channels. It hasn't really changed, we can't tell what exactly is going on." Sulu supplied.

"It looks like someone is there." Chekov pointed to what could conceivably be the outline of a person; but who they were and if they were even alive was difficult to ascertain.

"It appears as if someone is moving in the background." Spock pointed out, drawing everyone's attention to the shift in debris toward the back of the screen.

"This isn't an image," Sulu said in shock, "this is a video!"

Chekov's eyes widened, "Is it live?"

"How is there even video coming out of there?" Uhura demanded.

Spock looked perturbed, "Who is responsible for this broadcast?"

"No one." Sulu responded immediate, "It just cut into all the news feeds."

"You mean the frequencies were hacked?" Uhura demanded clarification.

Chekov and Sulu both nodded vigorously.

"If this was a deliberate attack this could be the culprit's way of taking credit." Spock postulated.

Sulu's eyebrows furrowed, "But how would they even be getting this footage? Live or not they'd have to have access to the inside."

The two officers continued to bounce ideas off one another but Uhura tuned them out, instead choosing to study the still blurry footage intensely, and will her heart to cease hammering.

"Oh my god," She whispered, voice quaking. "Spock, that's _them_."

Spock stopped his conversation with Sulu and turned his attention to her immediately, voice hard as he demanded, "Nyota clarify."

"That's Leonard and Jim."

Chekov's breath hitched as he snatched the pad out of Uhura's hands, Sulu standing over his shoulder as the two of them examined the grainy images intently.

Except Spock didn't have to see any evidence to know Nyota was right. He trusted her eyes, knew she wouldn't say something like that unless she was absolutely certain.

"Дерьмо." Chekov exhaled, coming to the same conclusion as his crewmember had.

Panic began to creep back into her heart as Nyota looked to Spock in terror and desperation, "Spock they're trapped down there."

 **A/N:** **Дерьмо: Russian, shit. Chekov has a potty mouth. Hope y'all enjoyed this! I will most likely be updating every week, either on Sunday or Monday, so stay tuned. This one also should not be nearly as long as the first. But for now, I hope you've enjoyed what I have so far, I'll get the next chapter out in a week!**


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